American Dueling
by ClockTowerOfDestiny
Summary: 12 years on from graduation, Alexis and Syrus are working together to build the game in America. To do that, they are going to have to improve the American league to make it stand up to the Pro League. How will they fare?
1. Chapter 1

**Author Notes: Hello, and welcome to a story idea that I have not seen posted on here. I always wondered about the wider world of GX, and specifically about what happened as the characters aged and moved on with their lives. Pro dueling was never fleshed out as much as I would like it to be, and thus came this idea. This story takes place 12 years after the events of season 4, and will mainly focus on Syrus and Alexis working to improve the professional circuit in America. I hope you enjoy it, and let's see what happens. I don't own Yugioh GX, and I do not seek to profit off this story.**

 **Chapter 1: Grow the Game**

12 years after she graduated from Duel Academy, Alexis had been regarded as one of the best ambassadors for dueling in America. She had taught in America for 12 years as a professor at the New York School, where she had taught hundreds of students how to improve their decks in addition to discussing professional duels to show what was happening. She was doing what she wanted, and the sport was becoming incrementally more popular with each passing year. The Pro League was getting regular time on cable television and was viewed as content that could appeal to young people. The problem was that the Pro League was viewed as the best league in the world, but the matches were tape-delayed to primetime. As a result, there was growing hunger for another league to improve that would be more homegrown and showcase a thriving culture that was starting to come into focus.

The American Dueling League was the top league in America, available to watch on the league's streaming service. This league had a hook that the Pro League refused to offer, which was team dueling. There were 20 teams in the league, and each team had 2 duelists and a Tag Duel pair that worked together to win a match duel. A match duel worked where each single duelist dueled the opponent single duelists and the tag duelists dueled each other. The single duelists would swap opponents and the winning team would be the first team to win 3 duels in the match. The Pro League had no such setup, and the rankings were determined by who knows what and the whims of the sponsors. It was rumored that Kaiba Corporation was the most powerful of all the sponsors and gamed the system. The ADL had a hardcore set of fans that tuned into matches, but building a brand was hard.

The man charged with building the brand was Syrus Truesdale. He had dueled in the Pro League for a few years before he chose to retire after falling down the ranks and dealing with the pressure of having the expectations to be as good as his brother. Syrus was offered the chance 5 years ago to run the ADL as the league commissioner, and he took it. His main accomplishments were setting up internet streaming for every match, and trying to market to Pro League fans by emphasizing that more Americans dueled in the ADL compared to the Pro League. He also made sure to schedule matches that would not interfere with major sporting events in the country, and purchased ad time on network television to emphasize the skill of his

Most of the duelists on the teams were Americans, because most of the elite graduates of the major academies wanted to work on other things or go straight to the Pro League. The ADL got college duelists or those who happened to know the game but could not get into the more elite academies. Alexis had leveraged her friendship with Syrus and her teaching skills to encourage her pupils to follow their dreams and to not be burdened with what she had been burdened with.

At the ADL offices in Chicago, Syrus was looking over the internal numbers for the previous weekend of matches. The streaming numbers were solid, with an average of 150,000 subscribers watching at any point of any of the 10 matches. He was unsure of how to get more people interested, since Kabia Corp had been unwilling to work with him on a joint exhibition tour of the United States and Japan that would have introduced each league's stars to the differing fanbases. He picked up his phone and made a call to the New York School, and asked for Alexis.

Alexis was finishing up a class, where she was teaching about field spells and how they were an important part of any deck construction. She had seen how her friends had used field spells to augment their decks and has seen numerous duels turn on the usage of these cards. It was one of her most important points to her students, that understanding your deck and knowing how to construct it was a key that many players could forget in their quest for knowledge. After her students left, Alexis went to her office when her phone rang. She closed the door, and picked up the phone.

Hello, Alexis Rhodes here. Who is this?", she said in a cheerful voice. She never got a whole lot of calls from her classmates, with all of them continuing their journeys. Jaden never called, and he was off the grid as far as she could tell.

Syrus looked out his office window and said "Hello Lex, it's me Syrus. I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time." Alexis grinned and stood up, and said "Good to hear from you Sy. I take it that you don't want to catch up on things?" Syrus giggled a bit, and said "No, I don't. Listen, have you ever considered coming out of retirement and dueling in an exhibition against one of the best duelists in the ADL?

To Be Continued.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh GX, and am not seeking any profit on this work. All rights belong to the owners of Yugioh GX.**

 **Chapter 2: Heart in the Game**

Alexis had dueled in the past couple of years, but nothing official. She had never intended to duel in a professional match, and had refused plenty of exhibitions that would have been lucrative. Truth be told, she preferred to teach the art of dueling rather than duel these days. Her days at the Academy had been fun, but it seemed like every other duel she competed in was filled with pressure. In this job, she got to teach and work with people who loved the game like her, and her students never had to worry about saving the world. She had made her peace with it, and she always guessed that her friends had done the same. She was lost in her thoughts for a few minutes, wondering exactly who she would be dueling?

Alexis always dueled in the faculty tournament, and had won the even last year easily. She had mentored a couple of students who had gone to some league and done well. "Sy, I have not dueled at a professional level in my life. My first duty is to this school and my students, but I need to test myself again to see what it is like. You are a friend and someone whom understands what happened those years ago. I would be willing to do this. Why exactly did you ask me?"

Syrus knew that this was a bit of a shot in the dark. The ADL was caught in a bind of trying to keep the diehards but build the brand. What wasn't helping him out is the fact that he was unable to leverage the relationships he had made at school. Jaden was off the grid, Chazz was focused on doing things his way and didn't want to get help, Jesse had been doing his own thing for years now, Hassleberry was doing archeological digs in Australia at the moment, and Bastion still seemed to be in the spirit dimension. He had left the bright lights behind because he knew he would never get to make his name outside of his brother. If Syrus failed at this job, he was not sure what was going to happen. He paced around his office and said "The reason I asked you was because you teach at a school that has produced some of the better duelists of the league. You're someone who I know is a good duelist and can try and sell on television. I am planning this event to be on network television as a time buy."

The amount of desperation in his voice was palpable. This was an attempt to increase the league's profile at all costs and was scheduled for the middle of December in New York City, planned to avoid competition from the other dueling events and sports as much as possible. Syrus had contacted professional duelists and had been stonewalled by agents and managers who struggled to make the schedule work in addition to the company who almost controlled the Pro League.

Kaiba Corporation was the major sponsor of the Pro League, and had tentacles throughout the dueling world. Kabia Land was were the major duels happened, and getting onto that stage was something that every duelist dreamed of at all the academies. The company leveraged those dreams by sponsoring the best of the best, and did not like to have their stable of duelists go outside the events that they sponsored. Syrus refused to play that game because he saw a weakness in the format. Each Pro League event was a single duel, and nobody was certain as to how the rankings were computed. The Pro League treated the formula like a closely guarded secret.

The ADL on the other hand went for a different approach. The concept of a team of duelists was designed so that members of the public got to see multiple duels per event, hopefully making sure that the audience got more value. The duelists and the teams were ranked by results, and stats were tabulated so that fans always knew who was doing well and who was doing poorly. A double round robin format meant that no team could dodge another, and that in the various cities the fans never got to miss out on seeing good duelists because the promoters and the league wanted to put duels in places that were away from their location.

Alexis knew that she could help Syrus out, and it would be interesting to showcase her skills to her students as well as promote the school. She said "I'd like to meet you at your office on Saturday afternoon at 2 so we can talk this over."

Syrus nodded and said "Yes, see you then. Nice talking with you, and we can catch up more later." He hung up the phone and grinned to himself as he made a note in his planner and instructed his secretary to make a note.

 **Author's note: Thank you for reading, and it was great to hear that people find this interesting. Next chapter will talk more about the structure of the ADL, as well as revealing who Alexis will duel. I always appreciate getting readers and feedback.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes: I want to thank everyone who has left a review on American Dueling. You folks have given me a lot of feedback and have blown me away with the interest you have showed. This chapter is going to be moving towards the exhibition duel as well as revealing the consequences that Syrus and Alexis are facing should this go wrong. I do not own Yugioh GX and will not profit off this work.**

 **Chapter 3: Discuss the Game**

The ADL offices were housed in an office building in Chicago. The rent was cheaper than New York. When one entered the offices, the first thing noticeable was there was a bank of cubicles. This was no mistake, as the cubicles housed the workers that were responsible for the streaming network. It was critical to have the streaming network fast enough and worth the money that fans paid for in order to watch the match duels, as well as access replays and statistics.

As one walked further in the offices, they would come across the liaisons that worked with each team. Syrus had set that up because he had been tired of getting calls about venue issues, salary disputes, scheduling, and other headaches on his day off. It had been easier for him when there were 14 teams, but with expansion in the last 3 years, that became impossible. There was some grumbling that Syrus had become too impersonal and was harder to reach directly these days for the league managers.

In the back, was Syrus's office. It was a sleek office that had a desktop computer with dual monitors. He also had a screen that displayed the latest dueling news, as well as teleconference facilities so he could never miss anything going on in his league.

Alexis had flown in from New York after her last class on Friday, unsure about what exactly her role in this would be. She had been off the mainstream dueling world for years, and had contented her life to teach. This was different, because Syrus had been someone who had been with her through all the trials of her time at Duel Academy, and had never asked for anything in return.

She checked in at the receptionist and indicated she was here to see Commissioner Truesdale. A few minutes later, Syrus walked out and there was a beaming grin on his face, his eyes lighting up like he had just seen someone who would mean a world of difference to him.

They walked into his office and sat down. Syrus said "I take it that you intend to find out your opponent. Alexis nodded and said "Yes, of course Sy." Syrus turned his laptop around, and the opponent was revealed.

Syrus said "You will be dueling one of the best in the league, and someone who has plenty of professional experience. He is the face of the marquee team in our league, the New Jersey Generals. His name is Harrington Parker, and he duels with a Cyber Dragon deck. He takes after Zane."

Alexis studied the image, and noted that she had heard of Parker in her head. Parker was not good enough to get into her school, so he went to the Chicago academy and had become their number one student, and had been recruited by the Pro League. Parker had dueled there for a year, but had quit because his agent had stopped getting duels in favor of more marketable hotshots. Parker was now 28 years old and had been the star of New Jersey's dominant dynasty.

There were 20 teams in the league, and no divisions or playoffs. Syrus had wanted to keep the format simple, even though most American sports leagues had some sort of playoff format or divisions. The rationale that Syrus always said was that every team was going to play their opponents the same number of times. This meant that Syrus was leaving a huge amount of money on the table, potentially millions of dollars.

Alexis said in a calm voice "Harrington Parker. I hear he is good, and we tried to get him as an amateur. So, tell me about this match and what exactly are you going to do if this does not work?"

Syrus gulped, and seemed to be flustered. "Well, I, uh, don't like to admit this very much. 3 years ago, we were offered a deal by a cable sports network to carry our league. It was valued at $250,000 a year for 4 years, with the expectation that we would become like the other American sports leagues. We had just recently set up our streaming where each club would get a cut of the advertising revenue, and we 100% controlled the product. The network deal would have ruined our streaming platform, since we would have blacked out national appearances."

Syrus turned his head to the map of America on his wall, and pointed to the dots on the map. "We have 20 teams, and our league is based on the idea that every team gets treated the same. Our biggest draw is the New Jersey Generals, who are based in suburban New York City. Our smallest market team is the Anchorage Lights. Every team gets an equal share of the streaming revenue. I turned down the network deal because I wanted to make sure that no team gets treated differently or dealing with the accusations about network bias. Did we leave money on the table? Yes! Did we lose market access and make it difficult to get the casual fan who watches cable sports on their free time? Of course! I got roasted over the coals for this! In fact, if this exhibition event doesn't raise revenue in a year, I'm gone and the league could be in serious trouble and go belly-up."

Alexis was stunned at hearing the news. She had always thought that Syrus was doing okay at his job, but she never thought that Syrus had things that bad. She looked him over, and could see the level of stress in his eyes and shoulders. The man had been trying to his job, and had made a decision that could be such a negative one for a lot of people.

She looked down at him and said "You are taking a risk on me, but I am willing to do this. I still get the urge to prove myself at times, and I would be able to blow off teaching for a bit since this would help my school. Syrus, you have always been the person who stepped up when we were in crisis all those years ago. It saddens me that none of our friends from school could have helped you, and I owe you at least one favor. I will make some calls, and see what I can do to get more publicity."

Syrus jumped up high into the air and pumped his fist. "Thank you so much Lexi. You will get $20,000 to participate and cover travel expenses. Your name still carries weight here thanks to your teaching level."

After the meeting, plans were arranged. Syrus had bought time on Fox for 2 hours on Saturday, December 17. The duel would take place at the theater at Madison Square Garden, and would be advertised on television aggressively. This was a gamble for the ADL, and it would be important to get the viewers to tune in. Would this work?


	4. Chapter 4

**Author Notes: I know that I have not updated for a while, and I can take the hit. The holiday period and other things going on in my life have made it difficult to write something up to the standards that I expect. The good news is that I have been able to study some more sports business stuff and think about how I want to package this work. This chapter will see the start of the duel, and some interesting things to ponder for our heroes. Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh GX, and will not profit off this work in any way.**

 **Chapter 4: Walking Knife's Edge**

 _What makes a star? Does a star have the natural talent alone? Does the star get a crack marketing team to convince people? Does a star have to win consistently at the top level? Does a star have to be a crossover star? Can there be multiple stars? Is a team a star? Is the league a star?_

Those questions were simple to say, but difficult to define. Sports in America have been based on the idea of having a star to bring in the revenue needed to survive, and leagues and teams had fallen because they lacked the star power in the eyes of the fan and viewer. Today, the viewer interested in sports has plenty of choices fighting for a scarce entertainment dollar and different subscriptions that promised various things. For one league, they were going to find out if they had a star in the making on primetime network television, the single biggest way to reach the American public.

It was a chilly night in New York City, and the Theater at Madison Square Garden had gotten 5,000 patrons to pay 25 dollars to be part of the television audience. Syrus had convinced both Harrington and Alexis to wear microphones in order to make sure that both the television audience in the theater and watching on television had the ability to hear the live audio. During the walkthrough two days prior, Syrus had made sure that both duelists could position themselves in a way that the audience could see both duel fields.

Harrington was confident coming into the match. He was 29-11 in his most recent season, and he was the lead duelist of the two-time defending champion New Jersey Generals. This was a chance to expand his brand and consider a possible increase in salary from the Generals. He knew that Alexis was good enough to make it into Duel Academy and had been involved in some strange things back in the day. The only problem in his eyes from winning this duel was that he was facing someone who had broken his duels down and taught other duelists he competed against, so she was not going to be some pushover or rookie duelist that he beat up on in match duels every week.

Alexis was going into the great unknown, and there was a lot of pressure. Yes, she did not have a professional record to defend. She had the reputation of her school to defend. The New York School was positioned as one of the best dueling schools in America and was a very good school on the college dueling circuit. If Alexis got humiliated, it would make her look like someone who could not teach, and would paint her employer in a very bad light. So, her preparations were undertaken with a sense of urgency. She kept her Cyber Angel deck, because it was the one that she had built for years and was successful when she had dueled at a high level back in the day. She sent one of her students to every local Generals match duel to observe Harrington's style.

The dueling media in America was interested in this, because it was rare to have an exhibition duel in America between two figures who were as respected. Alexis and Harrington both had different styles befitting their deck archetypes. Alexis needed to get her best monsters on the field after playing a more defensive game, while Harrington relied much more on getting his monsters out quickly and gambling that he could hit hard before he got hit back. Combine that with the fact that Alexis was one of the rare Obelisk Blue students to not attempt to duel professionally in some league. Most experts had Harrington winning because he was more used to a high profile environment, though some old classmates of Alexis had other thoughts.

The clock struck 8 in the East, and the primetime broadcast began. After Fox ran the disclaimer saying that they had chosen to present a time buy program, Syrus had his taped announcement ready to go.

In the taped segment, Syrus was sitting in his office. He had a warm smile on, and looked into the camera. "Good evening, and thank you for tuning in. Dueling has been increasing in popularity in America for the past 12 years, and most people think of this game as something that the best of the best go to Japan to duel. Well, my name is Syrus Truesdale and I am here tonight to point out that is not true. I am the commissioner of the American Dueling League, and we are presenting an exhibition duel between one of our brightest stars and one of the best teachers in this country."

As the taped announcement was going on, Alexis and Harrington were on the stage and looked each other over. Harrington was a slender young man who was wearing his trademark green headband over his red hair pulled into a ponytail. He was taller than Alexis and offered his hand. "I understand that you have never dueled professionally despite being a top student yourself. I can't wait to see how you stack up." Alexis nodded her head, and shook her hand back. "You are correct. I'm doing this because I want to challenge myself, and show my students that I still have game. Syrus is a friend of mine, and I always help my friends out."

The intro finished, and a technican fitted microphones onto each duelist. Syrus walked to the middle of the stage, and said "I would like to thank everyone at home and here in New York for watching this duel tonight. The rules are simple, and agreed to by both our duelists. Each duelist has 4000 Life Points, and gets 40 cards. By agreement, Alexis gets the first turn, and each duelist will draw 5 cards. Both Alexis and Harrington will be microphoned, and have agreed to explain card effects. Monster cards will be flashed onto the large screen in front of you and on the television screen for those watching us at home in addition to damage calculation. I would like to wish both duelists luck, and may the outcome be fair."

Alexis and Harrington both put their decks in the duel discs, and yelled "Duel!" Syrus walked backstage and watched from behind the curtain. He wanted to make sure that the television audience focused more on the main event than him. Thankfully, the cameras on the stage were ringed around and focused on the duel, as the production team in the truck made sure that the telecast was looking good.

Alexis drew her cards and took the first draw of the match. She looked her cards over, wearing her old blue fingerless gloves with a black hoodie and blue jeans that had the New York School logo plastered on them. She thought it was good to be back, and she decided on a strategy. "Okay Harrington, I summon Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands in Attack Mode." A dark green fairy with hands coming from every which way popped up in Attack Mode, and glanced at Harrington in a fierce state, looking for a weakness. (1400/1000). "When I summon this card, I get to add a Ritual Monster or Ritual Spell from my deck to my hand. I think I am going to add Advanced Ritual Art." She pulled the card from her deck and shuffled the deck before returning the deck to the duel disk. "I am going to throw down 2 cards face down and end my turn." She put the two cards face down, and then waited for Harrington to make his move.

Harrington was surprised that she would not get a ritual monster out that quickly. She had to know that he was going to aim for a knockout punch after the first few turns. "Is that what they teach at schools these days? Oh well, my draw." He drew a card to add to his starting hand, and glanced it over. "Time to play a bit of offense. I special summon Cyber Dragon. I can do this, because I have no monster on my field right now when my opponent controls one face up monster." A long white metal dragon popped to life and looked over Alexis, probing for weaknesses. (2100/1600). "Cyber Dragon, attack Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands." A yellow bean shot out from Cyber Dragon's mouth and went straight for Manju.

Alexis grinned, and said "Bit hasty to attack with a signature monster, but not good enough tonight. I activate the trap card Quaking Mirror Force! This card forces your monster into face down defense mode, and you can't change that position no matter what." The trap card activated and Cyber Dragon's attack was stopped, and the card flipped over. Harrington was stunned, and he knew that Alexis was as good as her reputation.

Harrington grimaced, and said "Well, I will set a card face down and end my turn." A card went face down and he extended his hand to his opponent.

Alexis smiled, and said "You seem less cocky now. My draw." She drew, and grinned. It was time to summon a big dog monster right now. "I activate the spell card Ritual Cage! When this card is activated, all attacks involving a Ritual monster I control will cost me 0 damage. In addition, Ritual monster cards I control can't be destroyed or targeted by monster effects." The crowd gasped, as they recognized that Alexis was playing an interesting strategy. She knew that she could not win a quick duel based on archetypes alone, thus she needed to slow it down and buy time for her monsters to shine. "Next, I am going to activate the spell card Polymerization to fuse Etoile Cyber and Blade Skater together in order to summon Cyber Blader." A masked blader skated out to the Monster Zone, and readied for battle. (2100/800). "Now, Cyber Blader, attack the face down Cyber Dragon!" Cyber Blader slashed and cut as the face down card was destroyed, and Harrington groaned. "Now Manju, attack Harrington directly!" Manju glided over and then hit Harrington, who said "Nice move, Alexis." (Harrington 2400/Alexis 4000). "I end my turn now", said Alexis.

The audience was starting to buzz. Was Harrington really in trouble, or was this just a blip. Harrington himself shook his head, and said "You are amazing and I can see why you were highly ranked 12 years ago. Of course, this is a different setting. My draw." He drew a card, and then said "Anything you can do, I can do as well. I have my own Polymerization card, and I use it to combine 2 Cyber Dragons to form the Cyber Twin Dragon." A two headed dragon rose from the same spot where the face down was just a moment ago. (2800/2100). "When this monster attacks, it gets two attacks. Looks like I can attack both of your monsters." Alexis raised her eyebrows, and decided to save her trap card. She had enough cards to get a card out that would turn the duel. Cyber Twin Dragon attacked both Manju and Cyber Blader, destroying Manju and enveloping smoke on Alexis. (Harrington 2400/Alexis 1900).

Alexis raised her head after the smoke disappered and said "Nice attack, but since Cyber Blader's effect comes in to play she is sticking around. When my opponent has control of one monster on the field, Cyber Blader will stick around."

"I end my turn."

In the background, Syrus had a big smile on his face watching the live feed. This was an interesting duel, and the studio audience seemed engaged, and both duelists had brought their fastballs to the duel. This would leave a good impression on those who gave his league a chance. That is, depending on the rest of the duel.

 **To Be Continued.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author Notes: Thank you to everyone who has read this work and given me praise and advice. I've actually never written a duel before, so I hope that the formatting is making sense. In this chapter, we will see the conclusion to the duel, and hopefully you enjoy the investment of time and interest you made to this work. I did realize that Cyber Blader's effect on the last turn means she can't be destroyed in battle, so I made the edit. I apologize for the mistake, and I should check all the cards I wrote to make sure I used properly and in accordance with the source material. Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh GX, and I never will profit or seek profit off this work.**

 **Chapter 5: All Skills Needed**

" _To win the game is great. To play the game is greater. But to love the game is the greatest of all." -Quote on the plaque inside the Palestra in Philadelphia._

 _Situation of the duel: Alexis is going into her turn with a face down, Cyber Blader, Ritual Cage, and 1900 Life Points. Harrington has 2400 Life Points in addition to Cyber Twin Dragon and a face down card._

30 minutes into the duel, and it was clear to Alexis that she missed dueling at a high level. Her adventures in her youth had made it clear that she could throw down with the best.

This time, there was no creepy forces from another dimension nor the fate of the universe resting in the result of a children's card game. Her peers had been amazed when she told her story, and that she had survived against incredible odds.

She owed Syrus one because they had shared being part of a journey that had to be seen to believed, and had dealt with threats that nobody outside of Duel Academy could understand.

What Alexis had gained the most from teaching and her experiences at Duel Academy was the realization that she was talented because she strove to be different. She was the only faculty member at the New York School that played her deck recipe. She had taught 50 duelists that had been successful in the ADL, and had done classes on those duels. It was high time that she began to repay the faith that Syrus was putting in her to help him.

She drew a card, and said "Harrington, I can see why you are the ace of the Generals. I've dueled plenty of guys like you in my day, and I push them to the very limits of their skills. Thankfully for me, you remind me of another duelist that uses your archetype."

Harrington was about ready to cringe. Boy, Alexis seemed to have a one liner for everything. "Yeah, I see that. You think I am Zane. Well, I couldn't hack it over in Japan. This is different, because your school never let me in and I went to Chicago."

Alexis wove her fingers in a dismissive manner and said "Not exactly. You showed the aptitude to get in, but I don't deal with admissions. The school laid out why, and you should be happy that Chicago was good to you. I'm not an amateur by any stretch. I've faced off with forces you could not understand, and shown intense emotional growth during that time in my life. This duel is about me getting back to a level where I can grow, and give that information to my students. "

Harrington nodded his head, and said "Well, you certainly have grown during this duel Alexis." Alexis nodded, and then revealed a spell card.

"I'll start with this spell. I activate the spell card known as Ritual Sanctuary. This Field Spell card allows me to discard one spell from my hand, and I can add a Light Ritual monster or a Ritual Spell Card from my deck to my hand. In addition, I can shuffle spells from my grave to my deck to summon 1 Light Fairy monster from the grave as long as the level matches the cards shuffled into my deck. I can use each effect once per turn."

Harrington had a look of disdain, and said "Well, that card is certainly useful to you. What difference will that make to this duel?"

Alexis grinned, and said "Everything. I discard one card and I add Machine Angel Ritual to my hand. I active Machine Angle Ritual. When this card is activated, I can summon any Cyber Angel card I choose through a Ritual Summon provided I tribute the exact number of stars. I tribute two monster cards in my hand in order to summon Cyber Angel Dakini in Attack Mode."

A shimmering light appeared as a female warrior wielding four swords popped up. (2700/2400). "When Dakini is summoned via Special Summoning, you are required to pick a monster to banish to the grave. I think that choice is going to be easy!"

Harrington looked stunned, and he shielded his eyes with his Duel Disk. "Dang you, I choose Cyber Twin Dragon." A veil of smoke enevoloped the mechanized dragon as it was destroyed.

Alexis said "In the words of an old friend, this might be game. Dakini, attack Harrington directly and end this duel right now."

Harrington put down his duel desk and flashed a wry smile. He chuckled, and said "Nice try, but this duel is not over yet. I activate my face down. This card is a trap called Threatening Roar, and I hang on for a bit longer. You are not allowed to attack this turn, so we'll continue this dance."

Alexis nodded her head, and said "Well played, Harrington. I see that you want to not embarrass your league at all. I'll end my turn right now, and hand you the keys to the next turn."

Harrington drew a card, and grinned. He was impressed, but not worried. This duel was going to represent that he was the best in North America, at least based on beating one of the best teachers and being the star attraction on the star league team. "I see that you think that everything changed in our duel. You're right, but not in the way that you anticipated. I'll begin by activating a spell card. The card is named Cybernetic Fusion Support, and here is how it works. I have to sacrifice half of my life points to do this."

He groaned as a white light enveloped him, and the light took half his life points. (Harrington 1200/Alexis 2100). "Next, I am allowed to summon a Fusion Monster so long as I banish Fusion Materials from my hand, field, and grave. I remove 3 copies of Cyber Dragon from play, allowing me to bring forth the Cyber End Dragon!"

A blast of smoke coated the theater as a metallic three headed dragon appeared, and settled on the field. (4000/2800). Alexis showed no emotion, as the monster looked at the Cyber Angel, daring it to battle when their masters would do the honor of combat.

Harrington then said "I'll next activate Pot of Greed. I'll draw 2 cards." He drew two cards, and smiled. "I activate the spell card known as Mystical Space Typhoon. I'll get to destroy one Spell or Trap, and the best choice is to remove your defense. Destroy Ritual Cage!"

Alexis gasped, and watched as her good stall card was destroyed instantly by the typhoon. Without the protection, things seemed to be hopeless. Harrington said "Oh trust me, it's going to get worse. I activate the spell card Limiter Removal! All Machine Type monsters I control have their attack doubled." (8000/2700 after effect.) "Alexis, this has been real fun, but, it's over! Cyber End Dragon, attack her Cyber Angel and end this freaking thing without mercy."

Alexis grinned, and it was time to unleash her secret weapon. She had made some calls to an old friend that owed her a couple of favors, and that friend had come through in the face down. She smirked, and turned into teacher mode. "The thing you forget Harrington is that I've studied your duels and used them as a way to teach my students about reading the game. You backed me into a corner, and I still have faith in my deck. I figured that you would try and go for a blitz win, since your deck is geared toward that and your stats back it up. Also, the best possible angle for the league is to have this be a good duel, with action."

Harrington was at a loss for words. Thank goodness that he had not enrolled at the New York School, because Alexis seriously seemed to have some secret plan up her sleeve. He said "What is your plan, and what card do you think that will counter me?"

Alexis nodded, and said "My face down is revealed as Sakuretsu Armor. Since Cyber End Dragon has been declared for an attack, that card is destroyed, and we play on."

Harrington screamed "What in the world? My best card and one of my best combos?" The dragon was pixilated and went to the graveyard, leaving Harrington wide open. It looked like it was over.

Harrington glanced up, and said "I end my turn. Well played, Professor Rhodes."

Alexis grinned, and drew a card. She said "Well, thank you. I'll cut straight to it. I got this card thanks to my old friend Aster Phoenix. He happened to be retooling his deck a bit, and needed to get rid of a copy of this card. He owed me a favor for a thing back in the school years we shared, and as an apology for the brainwashing thing second year that happened. He said that this card would help me beat you, and he was right. Dakini, this duel is over."

Dakini attacked, and the duel was over, as Harrington grasped his shoulder as his Life Points were removed from him. (Harrington 0/Alexis 1900).

Syrus was impressed backstage. It had been a quick duel, but it was an interesting tactical fight. Alexis had shown that given ample time to prepare and use her resources, that she could hang with the best. He had argued for weeks that he picked Alexis because she could mix it up with anyone and always dueled with a hunger and passion that most people at the Academy overlooked because of her natural beauty.

He walked back out and said "That was an interesting duel, and I thank our audience for watching both here in New York City and around the country." The crowd cheered, and Syrus smiled, as did both contestants.

Alexis walked over to Harrington, and said "You are an impressive duelist, and you would have beaten me if not for the face down. I never get to duel Cyber Dragon users as much, and I thank you." Harrington nodded, and said "Not the first time I have taken a loss, and not the quickest loss I've had in league play. Good ad for our styles of dueling, and your students always give me problems. Alexis nodded, and prepared to go into the press conference and answer questions about how this upset had happened, and to find out if Syrus's great gamble had paid off.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author Notes: Thanks again to everyone who is reading this work. We'll see if Alexis was the only winner of the duel. Apologizes to those that have been waiting for an update, but real life has been crazy lately and have not had much time to write. This chapter is a little short, but I wanted to get it out. Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh GX, and all rights belong to the creators only.**

 **Chapter 6: The Day After**

 _"When you're in the day-to-day grind, it just seems like it's another step along the way. But I find joy in the actual process, the journey, the work. It's not the end. It's not the end event." - Cal Ripken, Jr._

The morning after was always going to be critical for Syrus to determine if his gamble had paid off. He had gotten $100,000 as the league's share of revenue from the live audience and Alexis and Harrington both got paid $35,000 as an appearance fee. He had sold $1 million in advertising revenue because companies were interested in reaching a younger audience. The league made a small profit off the event, which was good. Syrus was expecting to break even at best, so making a profit that could go into the streaming product or return to the league to pay for duelists or better venues to stage his events was good.

Ratings wise, this event had done modestly well and seemed to be well-reviewed. The national rating was a 0.7 which considering Syrus had promised a 0.5 rating to advertisers looked pretty good. There were a couple of things he would do differently if he chose to do another time buy.

The first would be to have a match duel. Most of the dueling fans would have preferred to have another event based on online feedback. In addition, sports like boxing and MMA had multiple fights on their events, so it would be a good way to get people conditioned to watching duels. His second fix would be to have some sort of competition element in play. An exhibition duel was nice, but most duelists seemed to want to compete for something. Competition was a natural angle to get viewers in and for the ADL to sell their story. All in all, it was a positive night and it remained to be seen if he could build the momentum when the new season started in February.

Of course, there was another professional dueling circuit on the other side of the world, and the Pro League had built in advantages that the ADL lacked.

The first advantage was that most of the dueling schools historically were oriented towards the Pro League as a dream for those students. If you went to Duel Academy and were talented enough to gain attention, the Pro League was a realistic goal. Since West, North, South, and East Academies were affiliated with Duel Academy, the Pro League had a built-in pipeline all over the world to milk. The ADL did get some duelists out of these schools, but the lack of team dueling culture in these schools and emphasis on solo duels meant that the Pro League was more comfortable based on schooling.

The second critical advantage was the Kaiba Dome. Every sport needed to have a signature arena that every duelist dreamed of, and the Kaiba Dome had been built up as an arena that meant something, and had the ghosts. Not actual ghosts, mind you.

Every single stadium that is old in sports has moments that define the venue. The ghosts of the stadium come out if the home team needs help, or adds to the aura. Kaiba Dome had seen plenty of legendary duels all the time, and the stage meant something. Syrus lacked that stage, because of the youth of the league and because trying to grow rivalry matches was taking longer than he would have thought.

Was the Pro League concerned? Not even close. The Pro League beamed all of their events around the world, and got millions of viewers over both broadcast television and PPV cable. They didn't need to buy time on television to get their content across to the viewer. Seto Kaiba had the wits about him to make sure that students who went to one of his school to be pushed to the Pro League, which meant that he allowed those matches to be beamed into the schools. This was part of building the brand, and something that the Pro League was okay with. They had the established names and the students who regarded as the best in the pipeline. No need to change with the times if you were on top.

At the ADL offices in Chicago, Syrus was pouring over the ratings data and talking with some of the team managers on a conference call. The initial responses seemed to be good. The audience in the theater had all felt comfortable, and the noise level translated well. One complaint was that Alexis and Harrington's decks had not been explained much, thus it was a barrier to enjoyment for those who did not know dueling as well or ran different decks. Syrus felt encouraged that people seemed to be interested in having Alexis being someone who had equal billing, and not just someone who was there on outside factors. That was something that Syrus never really thought about. He had asked Alexis to do this because he needed a favor, and she was a friend that happened to be female and good at what she did. The fact that Alexis won was a good selling point, but that was just a byproduct of the fact that dueling was a sport where the advantage was on skill rather than biology.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes: Writer's block is no fun, my friends. All of a sudden, you get an urge to write something, but tying the story together and making sense of the direction can take time. Anyways, time to move the story away from New York City and to another dueling event that is located in a surprising part of the United States. Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh GX, and all rights belong to the creators, and I am not seeking any money for this.**

 **Chapter 7: Great Alaskan Invitationals: The Prelude**

Far and away, one of the most astute moves that Syrus had made was to authorize the creation of the Anchorage Lights. Alaska had no professional sports teams for a couple of years before this, and dueling had been growing in popularity throughout the state. By far the biggest reason was that in Alaska, a person had to do something to pass the time during the winter. Dueling was something that anyone could become good at, and cards could be bought over the internet and shipped in. It was no surprise that the Lights had taken off in Alaska, where the whole state rallied around the team. They sold out Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, and the team had always been heavily homegrown. Their best duelist was named Matt Bowen, who was an Alaskan Native that ran a Pyro deck. He was considered the second-best duelist in the league behind Harrington, and was arguably the most popular athlete to come out of Alaska in some time if you excluded dog mushers.

One of the biggest dueling events in Alaska happened every year in January, and was one of the more unique tournaments anywhere in the world. The Great Alaskan Invitationals were a pair of 32 duelist events held in Anchorage and Fairbanks. At each site, half of the field was duelists born in Alaska, and the other half were duelists that were invited from all over the world. Each event had a group stage before the top 2 duelists in each group of 4 advanced after a round robin in your group. From there, there would be a straight tournament style event, with the two winners earning $50,000 and a year's supply of caribou meat.

It was for that reason that Alexis was up in Anchorage. The organizers of event wanted to have her compete because of the way that she won against Harrington, and that she would be a big enough draw to increase the audience on cable television. For the 5th year in a row, the Great Alaskan Invitationals were featured on FX, as a way to fill late night programming and to make sure that something live was airing for those people who were into sports, or just couldn't sleep and needed to watch something other than late night fare or old movies. The broadcast was similar to the exhibition match between Alexis and Harrington, as the feed relied on having microphones on the duelists in addition to stats boxes showing card information. That was the style of broadcasting that Syrus had chosen, in order to keep the attention on the product itself. He would be watching the event from his office in Chicago, making sure that he could incorporate some changes to the upcoming league season that would increase the profile of his sport.

Alexis was not thinking about the future of the sport, nor was it her prerogative to worry about organizing an event. She was competing in the Anchorage section of the Invitational, having been invited because of her stature in America and to capitalize on her victory a few weeks ago in New York City. The New York School had given her dispensation to spend the week in Alaska, as this would be another advertisement for the school, as well as a chance for Alexis to take a look at some potential students that would be competing and attending the tournament.

What surprised her was that she seemed to have some of the old talent back, and it was fun to show her students that they had a professor that could bring it on against the type of competition that those students dreamed about. In Duel Academy, she had always been one of the toughest students, only losing a few times because of seemingly preternatural runs of luck to further her opponents. It was almost like there was some unseen hand that had given those opponents that beat her some sort of plot armor. Here, she did not have to worry about that, and those runs of luck were probably left on the island, where supernatural things happened on an almost yearly basis all those years ago. It was almost liberating to just worry about what happened in a duel instead of what would happen as a result of the duel.

How she would do in the tournament, she did not know. Matt Bowen would be in her group, and that would be an interesting matchup. Bowen would be dueling in his home arena, and thousands of fans would be cheering for him. The second Alaskan native in her group was a former Pro Leaguer named Isabelle Stewart. She was a former phenom that flamed out a few years ago after refusing to take a dive in a Pro League card, and that cost her a lot of sponsors. Her deck was Warrior types, a common archetype. Her fellow invited duelist in the group was Aster Phoenix. The ironic thing was that they had almost dueled each other for the fate of Slifer Red, before Jaden returned to dueling. Her group was considered a glamorous group, and would be given prime time billing by the organizers on the three days of group play.

What made the Great Alaskan Invitationals interesting besides the format was that each group was scheduled to have the matches happen over three nights, and each duel would be contested at the same time with the matches taking place on half of the arena. This was done to avoid having any duelist trying to manipulate the results of the group in order to corrupt the integrity of the event. Monitors would be placed on all sides of the half of the arena, showing the duel on the other half to the audience. The cheers were known to be an extra challenge for the competitors, something that they would have to overcome. The organizers of the event claimed that the feature made it a challenge that was unrivaled anywhere else in the sport.

Alexis had trained for that by having her students duel her while volunteers would scream and yell, making it a simulation. It was an attack on the normal senses, and she wanted to see what would happen. Her completive instincts had been underrated through her life up to this point. She had been through a lot, and she had seen things that plenty of her peers could not believe. Duel Academy in her time period had been a great test of endurance and mental strength, and she had been one of the students who had been with Jaden all of his years. She had seen her brother vanish and return, see Zane get corrupted and taken to the brink. Through it all, she had been hanging tough and never backed down for anything. Surely, that would make her able to win some tournament in the Last Frontier.


End file.
